Hey, ButterflyLion

I work extensively with concrete dye in all my projects. I get powdered dye from Olde World. They are awesome. Their only drawback is I couldn't find a way to order several at a time from their ebay store, but, I once ordered five, and when they realized I was paying a crazy amount for shipping, they threw in another couple of colors to make up for it. Coolest people ever, and they deliver fast (2 days or so)

I add the dye to my dry mix. I have a cement mixer, so I slowly add it while its mixing.

Hope this helps

Amaretto, thanks for the info. What do you make?

Hey Butterflylion,

I use color in everything I do. There is no source for the
powdered stuff locally, so I get the liquid color from HD
or Lowes. They have bottles of Red, Charcoal, Brown, and
Terra Cotta. It is very concentrated so you will have to
experiment with it. Here is a group pic of some of the
stuff I do, if I can make it work.::
[IMG]http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u24/lexrobb/PotsPlanters.jpg[/IMG]
Or maybe this one::

http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u24/lexrobb/PotsPlanters.jpg

Or this::

{{gwi:67336}}

Really nice job, Lexrobb. I also enjoyed your "Faux-faux?" post on the "other" garden art website. Very informative. Thanks.

Chris

butterflylion, You can paint the exterior or add dyes to the mix. With adding to the mix you can't add too much dye because it will effect the cure. Regarding the stains/dyes from the hardware store you have to watch the amount of dye the terra cotta can give you a nasty pink color if you don't add enough.
I like to paint the exterior, it's more predictible. You can use craft arylic paint, deluted exterior latex house paint, cement stains and dyes from Smith Paint in Harrisburg, PA, wood stain. If you don't like the results you can just paint or stain over the finish. Go over on the "gallery" side and look at some of the pictures. Billie

ButterflyLion,

I've made a few oversized rock-looking planters. Now I'm getting set to finish a waterfall. I really like going for the faux-rock look.

You can see one of my planters in the "Why Square?" post.

I like to mix powdered iron oxide (black, reddish brown, brownish red, soft yellow) & chromium oxide (green) into my tufa mix. I had a brilliant blue made for cement, but it faded terribly in the sun (the swatches on my basement wall are still good, though). I got some of my pigments from a ceramics supply store, some from a masonry store.